Since acrylic acid is an organic compound which has both carboxylic acid and double bond and its structure is very simple and can be converted into various substances, thus the inherent value of acrylic acid is quite large. Among them, acrylic acid is used as a raw material for super absorbent polymer (SAP, Super Absorbent Polymer), paints, adhesives, etc., and is used as a raw material for various chemical products.
Acrylic acid is prepared by various methods, and commercially is prepared by oxidation of propylene, hydrolysis of acrylonitrile, and carbonylation of acetylene.
However, since the process uses raw materials derived from crude oil, in order to cope with the problem of crude oil depletion, a method of using biomass-derived resources as a starting material has recently been proposed. Specifically, acrylic acid is prepared through the reaction pathway of “glycerol-allyl alcohol-acrylic acid” using glycerol as a starting material (Korean patent Publication No. 2015-0006349).
In the above patent publication, the production of acrylic acid from allyl alcohol is carried out under strongly basic conditions by adding a base such as sodium hydroxide. As a result, the final substance is prepared as an acrylate salt rather than acrylic acid, and thus an additional separation step is indispensable. Also, due to the use of strong bases, there is a problem that the process equipment or apparatus used in the preparation of acrylic acid is corroded. Therefore, a method for preparing acrylic acid in neutral conditions, not strong bases, is required.